May I have your feedback in my application. [Exception Promise]
Software Engineer - Around 4 years of experience in product based company.
This is list of documents I prepared
Personal statement
CV
LOR 1 - From CTO of current company A
LOR 2 - CEO from Company B
LOR 3 - CEO from company C who knows me and my work for 4 years. I have contributed in improving their product when I was employee for Company B. Company B was using Company C SDK in their products.
10 Piece of evidence
#1 - Salary Document
Job offer letter from both employer which show salary
Comparison with Glassdoor and payscale.
Added screenshot of comparison.
#2 - Github Contribution
Information about starts,PR, number of repos, forks
Added top 3 contribution in different project with link of PR merged. Here I explained my contribution and description of what I did and how it was useful
I have been developing many open source projects. Listed some top rep with forks(Not so many forks though)
#3 Mentoring
I am member of couple of non profit organisation since 2022. I wrote their selection process to show they are structure program. Screenshots of my profile on their platform and slack messages.
Added my role in the organisation
#4 Certificates
I cleared couple of coding test in Hacker rank. Added screenshots and link
Also mentioned how these have been useful in my current role
#5 Volunteer work at different organisation
I worked for 3 different tech organisation to help them implementing some modules in their digital products
Added description of my role in each organisation
Added screenshot of commits
Certificate for contribution from organiser A
Reference letter from organiser B
Two of them have their own dashboard where member can see their profile and share profile link to others. Added these links too
#6 Online Talks
I spoke at couple of platforms about technology.
Added screenshot showing me as speaker
Links of talk and presentation
Number of attendees. All had more than 100
Dates of talks
#7 Publication
I wrote technical tutorial on Feb 2022 which has more than 8k views and 20 likes so far.
Wrote why this tutorial is useful
Added viewership of platform
Screenshot+Link of post and platform.
#8 Hackathon
I participated in couple of hackathon. Unfortunately I did not win any
Added screenshot of my profile showing number of hackathon I participated
In one of the hackathons I was suppose to create open source. After submitting open source I thought to continue working in that project. Later on it become some popular and was forked by few users. I added that details too
#9 - Contribution in Company A as an employee
Added details of each point where I contributed to achieve their goals in achieving x number of user and generating revenues
Added screenshot of app admin panel showing active users, graph from play store showing increment of new users
Reference letter from CEO of company confirming these contribution
Github commit summary screenshots
App links
#10 - Contribution in Company B as an employee
Added details of each point where I contributed to achieve their goals in achieving x number of user and generating revenues
Reference letter from co founder of company confirming these contribution
Github commit summary screenshots
App links
Award I received from company about my contribution
Third party websites where app is featured
As per the latest update you cannot submit 1 evidence for more than 1 criteria so I mapped like this
I assume that each of your LOR writer are qualified under TN guideline, and they look fine to me.
MC: #2 Github Contribution << Since this is 3 different projects, you may be able to create multiple evidence from this. #3 - Mentoring << This seems OK based on the TN guideline. #4 - Certificates << The general hackathon participation does not add much evidence here. If it is not so special, you may need to consider merging it as a page of other relevant evidence, to free up 1 evidence slot. #6 - Online Talks << This seems OK based on the TN guideline.
OC2 #5 - Volunteer work at different organisation <<< This has to be unpaid work. #7 - Publication << Is this a popular platform in Digital Tech field? #8 - Hackathon << This could be weak, unless you can provide the reason that your work has contributed to the advancement to the field. But having this is better than nothing.
OC3 #1 - Salary Document << Job offer, does not mean that you work in the company. Try to get the work certificate which shows the start and end dates, multiple roles (if any), and finally salary. Payslip may only show limited information for evaluation. #9 - Contribution in Company A as an employee << Seems fine. #10 - Contribution in Company B as an employee << Seems fine.
In summary, if you are applying for exceptional promise, you may have a good change here, since you seem to be able to provide at least one of the evidence to meet the criteria.
Thanks @alexnk for your valuable feedback. Really appreciate
Good idea. Thanks I will make them seperate and will map with MC and OC2
This is certificates from hackerank. I cleared 2 coding skills and earned certificates. Hackathon is different than this. Do you this this adds value to the evidences? Please share your thoughts @alexnk Thanks
Yes this is unpaid work. It’s volunteer work
Sounds reasonable to me. I just kept it incase if it helps to strengthen my evidences. However If I make seperate document for Github project I think I can replace with this. Please advise if this makes sense
Sure I can get certificate of employment from both current and previous employer and replace them with offer letter.
MC - how do you show you have been recognised as leader? How does slack messages show you have been recognised as a leader? Is this a top tier mentorship program? Are you also getting a reference letter from the organisation to confirm your claims?
What do you mean by online talks? Is this a sector leading event with over 100 people in attendance? So you have evidence of your name in the event schedule and evidence.of invitations or reference letter confirming why you were asked to speak. How recent are these events?
Volunteer work in three organisations, how do you demonstrate that these work advanced the sector?
I am not sure the relevance of the Hackathon to OC2? If you win it could be better suited for MC.
I think OC3 is fine as long as your impact is clearly communicated using metrics to elaborate what was achieved.
As it is for OC2, you will need to demonstrate how this activity meets the criteria “I have been recognised for my work outside of my immediate occupation that contributed to the advancement of the sector”. Otherwise, it may be in MC or just in your CV.
About your online talk and publication, make sure that you provide enough information about the event and platform that you have publication. I mentioned some keynote speakers from the event that I joined to illustrate how big is the event and I try to provide as much as details about the magazine that I have publication to prove that it’s a recognized publication.
And be careful about providing only external links, I got the comment “We don’t have to check every link you provided you should include information in your application” which I have done, it really depends on the assessing person’s attitude.
Thanks @Francisca_Chiedu for sharing feedback
so for mentorship i did not get much opportunity to contribute. I am not sure if this adds value or not. However as per @alexnk suggestion i separated Github evidences by projects. I contributed in 3 open source project and created two documents and planning to use them in MC and OC2
For online talks - based on my profile I was invited by organisor to be a guest speaker to speak about any technical topic which can improve business to achive their goals. The event has more than 100 attendees, It was around 1 year ago. I got certificate after speaking.
I did not win any therefor i am replacing this with one of github contribution.
Please share your feedback if this makes sense
Thanks
So here hackathon is weak (I replaced now with one of the github projects). For hackerrank certificate I am not sure it this can be helpful either. Do you please advice me if i can replace this with another one by spliting online talks. I spoke at two different event and both have more than 100 attendees and are about 8 to 12 months old…Please advise
So for online talk I provided information about platforms, what those events for, how they can advance the field. Links and screenshots for my name and picture showing me as speaker and date of happening
It’s true that they may not check link so i added everything related to evidence within 3-page file. I added links just incase if they wish to verify. I made sure it opens without any restriction
If you have space in MC or CV, add them in there for no longer than half of 1 page then. Use small screenshots with some explanation to explain. You may not expect much from it though.
For the Non profit mentoring, How do you intend to show your impact? It’s more than just having structure. How impactful was it??
Hackathon seem like weak evidence, especially due to the fact that you didn’t win. You may consider dropping it to avoid it been a roadblock in your application
You also need to make sure the organization and your role advances the digital technology sector.
